Remarkable

It’s kind of remarkable to be here, isn’t it?

This is one of those questions that works on multiple levels - at least for me it does. To be in this geographical location at all. How did I get here? It’s amazing to think of the millions of tiny decisions that led to this. From deciding to be near the bookshop where I’m expecting a book to come in (a pretty recent decison), to deciding to ask my parents for a bass guitar when I was a junior in high school (a pretty not-so-recent decision). So many others. Like, countless.

To be alive. What a miracle. I mean, seriously. There’s this story I’ve heard. I think it’s Buddhist. Imagine an ocean. It’s an infinate ocean, bigger than the universe. Swimming in this ocean is a single turtle. Just a regular sea turtle like the ones you might snorkle with in Hawaii. And floating on the surface of the ocean is a ring. It’s just big enough for the turtle to put its head through. Maybe 8 to 10 inches in diameter. Now, imagine the odds of the turtle surfacing for air, and putting its head through the ring. One turtle. One ring. Infinite ocean. Pretty crazy odds, right? They say these are the odds of you being born. Criminey. Imagine that.

That it’s September 17th.“Wow. It’s September 17th.” My wife said that this morning. Maybe not those exact words, but pretty close. I didn’t realize she’d said a complete sentence. I thought she was saying,“Wow, it’s September 17th…” and was waiting for“…and…literally anything here.” She was commenting on the date.’Cause it’s kind of crazy that we are here. Wasn’t it just January? Wasn’t it just September 16th of 2017? Time is weird. I think it might be sentient, and playing with us.

Regardless of the take - I find it pretty remarkable. Not sure I’ll ever quite get used to it. Not sure I’m supposed to.